fightingsioux4life

A nice, succinct description of what is happening and what needs to happen.

A loss at Idaho St. would be the newest low point for this program.

Silence is not necessarily golden for the Mussman regime. I think if Faison was standing by Mussman, he would have put out a press release this morning saying that. I think he has decided to keep things under wraps until the season is over.

It doesn't help matters that the local media coddles and covers for these coaches, whether they deserve it or not.

Montana State didn't have much problem scoring on us with backups. It really is that bad.

Just like the student section will be in two weeks at Homecoming. And I honestly cannot blame them right now.

I suggested this in another thread and nobody seemed interested. This could be a game-changer.

I think the point he's trying to make is that practice time is precious and it shouldn't be used for anything but practice. The NCAA gives you X number of days for that and you better use them wisely. Especially as an "emerging" FCS program like ours. And the comparison to sandbagging in 1997 is apples and oranges. That is service to the community and our athletes have been doing that for years. Having the players clean off the field is something that happens in intramural sports, not at a legitimate NCAA Division I institution.

So if we could have kept Lennon by giving him a little more money (I really believe that), then this is the best definition of being penny-wise and pound foolish I have ever seen. Of course, that happened during the rein of the "Co-Acting Athletic Directors", so that shouldn't surprise us. This was also Kupchella's final year as President, so he had absolutely no stake in the outcome. Not that he ever cared all that much about athletics anyway.

This is what I have been telling people. The 2001 defense would have performed better, even with the disparity in athleticism. They were mean, nasty, tough and snot-nosed. They didn't want to give up first downs, let alone touchdowns. They didn't just beat you down, they beat you up. That is what I want at the FCS level as well. And if we have to give up some athleticism to get it, that is a trade off I am willing to make.

Tom Miller's puff piece in the Heraldo this morning tells you how low the expectations have sunk with this program: http://www.grandfork...icle/id/274502/ Really Tom? You really believe that? Wish I lived in your world. On second thought, no. What Mr. Miller doesn't get is if the program sets such a low standard as to be competitive with the bottom-half of the Big Sky Conference and just "accepts" losses to the top-half, we'll never be a Top Ten FCS program. But that is the biggest problem with this program right now; the expectations keep getting lowered to satisfy an ever-increasingly apathetic fan base. Follow Miller's half-baked standards and expectations and we'll be looking at attendance figures we haven't seen since the cold weather games at Memorial Stadium.

It's amazing. During our Division II heyday, volleyball was one of the weakest sports on campus. Now it's better than FB and WBB by a mile!

I could see us giving up 70+ at home vs. Eastern Washington. At Homecoming. In front of a bunch of alumni (including football alumni). And other prominent supporters of UND athletics and the institution itself. If that isn't the final nail in Mussman's UND coaching coffin, I don't know what will be.

I think we have Sac St. at home. That might be winnable. But based on what I have seen vs. the Montanas, I just don't know.

Okay, I can do that. No shortage of threads to vent on. I deleted my original post and moved it to the "Fire Muss" thread.

I don't see that happening. The Men's BB team, for the first time in a long time, looks like conference title contenders. They will have to improve their road record.

This program needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. No more promoting from within. Get rid of absolutely everybody and let the new head coach build the program however he sees fit. This might convince the younger kids in the program now (the ones that aren't playing much now, but that have lots of potential) that it might be worth sticking around. We are a couple more dismal seasons from being a perennial doormat in the Big Sky Conference (dare I say Morningside). We must blow it up and start over. The cost of not doing this far exceeds the cost of doing it.

Okay, but they are inevitably connected.

If you are saying that, I believe that this team has truly hit rock bottom.

153 points used to represent a season-long total for our defense! And sometimes it was even less than that!

And 2+2=5

They are speaking more truth than our broadcasting team ever dares to speak. Because we all know what happens to anyone (Paul Ralston) who dares to tell it like it is.

Muss and his staff have lost the team. That should be the last straw.

The TD we gave up right before the end of the first half was very similar to the TD that ended the losing streak 20 years ago. Weird.

If we are down 35 points, I probably will head out early again. I also left early in game one when we had a huge lead over Valparaiso. In both cases, the outcome was determined, it was getting late and I had to pick up some groceries on the way home. Any other litmus tests you want me to take? One other thing, based on the effort (or lack thereof) we saw vs. Montana, what were the chances of a comeback like the one vs. South Dakota in 2011? Slim and none.